Jim and Philip take a break from there work, taking a train to Hualian and driving up to Taroko Gorge for an afternoon.
The train travels east from Taipei through the Shuangshi area (two rivers) before cutting through the coastal mountains to the ocean then skirting the east coast southbound the length of the island. We get of train in Hualien 花蓮 and rent a car to drive up the gorge. Hualien 花蓮 with 110,000 inhabitants is the largest city on the East coast of Taiwan. The park was established as Tsugitaka-Taroko National Park (次高タロコ国立公園 Tsugitaka Taroko kokuritsu kōen) by the Governor-General of Taiwan on December 12, 1937. Following the Empire of Japan's defeat in World War II, the Republic of China assumed control of Taiwan and abolished the park on August 15, 1945. The park was reestablished on November 28, 1986.
A Truku aborgine walking out of the gorge saw the Pacific ocean and exclamed "Taroko!" - meaning "magnificent and beautiful." The Truku 太魯閣族 (or Taroko) people, originally grouped with the Seediq among the Atayal, were recognized as Taiwan's 12th aboriginal peoples on January 15, 2004.
The Taroko Gorge area is known for abundant marble. The marble of Taroko over 200 million years ago was sediment on the bottom of the ocean, which hardened into limestone over time, then over the past 100 million years, tectonic compression between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate metamorphosed the limestone into marble. Continuing tectonic motion pushed the rock above the surface of the ocean, where it continues to rise at about half a centimeter per year. The gorge was cut out of marble by the Liwu River.
The Tupido Tribe Trail was built by the Batto Bulego family of Taroko some 120 years ago, and now only parts of its ruins remain on the Tianhsyang mesa (天祥台地). Four generations of the family resided there until the Japanese army massacred the tribe and banished the survivors in 1914.
